[IPSMO] Tonight! We Believe Survivors of Canadian Mining (Apr 27) & Anti-Capitalist May Day

Thu Apr 27 09:32:51 PDT 2017

1. We Believe Survivors of Canadian Mining

~An evening to explore the intersections of extractive industries and 
violence against women~

April 27, 6pm-8.30pm
University of Ottawa, Desmarais Building - DMS 1110

Join IPSMO, OPIRG Ottawa, MiningWatch Canada and ProtestBarrick as we 
take an international, national, and very personal look at violence 
against women, as we find solidarity in the similarity of these 
struggles.

Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1650805138560226/

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SPEAKERS:

- Two survivors of human rights abuses related to mining from Papua New 
Guinea. These are women who have organized with other survivors and are 
now on a campaign for more dignified treatment from Barrick Gold and an 
end to these sexual assaults.

For context, see this article about their campaign stop in Toronto this 
week: Mining Survivors Demand Justice in Toronto - 
http://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/04/25/news/mining-violence-survivors-demand-justice-toronto

- Catherine Coumans (MiningWatch Canada)

- Jocelyn Wabano Iahtail (Ininew Eeyou Eskwayow from Cree Community 
Attawapiskat First Nation, an Holistic Violence Survivor, MMIW advocate 
and advocate against DeBeers Mining in her community's traditional land)

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After years of denying cases of sexual assault, Canadian mining company 
Barrick Gold compensated 119 women and girls who were victims of sexual 
violence by mine security in Papua New Guinea to the tune of ~$10,000 
each for these abuses, but had them sign an agreement that they could 
never sue the company. Eleven of the women refused this remedy package 
and threatened to sue the company, resulting in a higher out of court 
settlement. Since that time, the 119 women who originally accepted the 
money from Barrick have organized into women's groups and started to 
demand more dignified treatment from the company. Many others have never 
received any compensation at all, as allegations of sexual violence 
continue.

Closer to home, the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women has 
gained national and international attention due to the efforts of native 
women's organizing and documentation efforts. These grassroots efforts 
have challenged official reports about the numbers of women who have 
disappeared, and created support and community for families and 
survivors of gendered violence.

 From gaslighting tactics, to the cultural and legal barriers that 
prevent women from sharing their stories, we will look at the systemic 
forces that work to silence victims of abuse. We will also hear from 
courageous women who have self-organized with other survivors to tell 
their stories and demand accountability.

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Request:

If anyone has an extra cell phone lying around (one with a nice camera 
that works well on wifi), please bring it to donate to the women from 
Porgera. Electronics are extremely expensive there, and so far the 
documentation that they have done of their efforts have been on grainy 
cell phone cameras (like the one we used for the poster). Support 
women's self-organizing efforts against sexual assualt! Share this 
request and hopefully we can get a bunch of cell phones for them to 
share with other women back in Papua New Guinea!

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2. May Day 2017: Celebrate Anti-Colonial & Anti-Capitalist Struggle
Hosted by Anti Capitalist Mayday Ottawa
1 May at 15:00–19:00, Minto Park
Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1959900200904910/

May Day 2017: Celebrating Anti-Colonial and Anti-Capitalist Struggle

We acknowledge and affirm that Ottawa, and the entire Ottawa river 
watershed, is the stolen land of the Algonquin nation.

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Rally and March
Monday, May 1, starting at 3:00pm
Minto Park, corner of Elgin and Lisgar
This is not a permitted march
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Free Feast
Monday, May 1, starting at 5:30pm
Location TBD
Family friendly
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Make Me Bad May Day Party
Monday May 1, starting at 8:00pm
Cafe Nostalgica
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/266773907066795/
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Anti-Capitalist May Day Ottawa Contact Info:
Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/Anti-Capitalist-Mayday-Ottawa-1704113833180280/

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May Day 2017

We invite everyone to join us for May 1, International Workers' Day. May 
Day is a day to honour workers' efforts to get justice, dignity and 
equality for themselves and their children.

This year, the Canadian government will be spending half a billion 
dollars celebrating the 150th anniversary of confederation, but for 
many, especially Native people, there is nothing to celebrate.

We invite everyone who supports Indigenous self-determination, a 
nation-to-nation relationship, and safety for Indigenous women, girls 
and two-spirited people to join us!

We invite everyone who wants workers to have a living wage, healthy 
workplaces and safe communities to join us!
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The rally will start at Minto Park. We will gather there at 3:00pm. From 
there we will be marching through downtown Ottawa.

Three confirmed speakers:

1) Jocelyn Wabano-Iahtail
2) Matt Cicero
3) Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)
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An anti-capitalist and anti-colonial analysis of Canada’s 150th 
anniversary

May Day was born out of militant working class struggle. First declared 
by the 2nd International to commemorate the Haymarket Affair of May 
1886, it is celebrated around the world as International Workers Day—not 
just in the centres of capital, but also in the peripheries (the 
so-called "Third World") where the contradictions between the exploiting 
class and the exploited are most often at their sharpest.

This year, Canada will be celebrating its 150 years of confederation. 
This is a celebration of Europe’s colonial expansion into Indigenous 
lands, a celebration of all that is settler colonialism and its 
genocidal policies against the native peoples that continue to this day

The ruling class tries to drive the idea that the foundation of Canada 
was a positive thing and an identity worth rallying around for the 
working class, for immigrants and even for Indigenous peoples. But their 
celebration of settler nationalism can only serve to obscure the 
systematic land theft, and the genocide, impoverishment, and racism 
against the Indigenous peoples, and can only divide the working people 
from their nationally oppressed native sisters & brothers, and serve 
capital in its ideological offensive against both indigenous and working 
class consciousness.

The struggle of the Indigenous peoples to break the chains of 
colonialism and imperialism, for liberation and self-determination, is 
intertwined with the struggle of the working class for emancipation. In 
Ottawa, we propose to celebrate this year’s International Workers’ Day 
as an Anti-Colonial Anti-Capitalist May Day, in celebration of the joint 
struggle and the unity of the native people and the working people of 
this colonized land of Canada.

The general and deepening crisis of imperialism, which is manifested in 
a state of permanent war against the Indigenous nations, racialized 
people, Muslims, and postcolonial countries, and against workers and 
their unions and political organizations, has found further expression 
and escalation in the election of a fascist to the office in the U.S., 
and a demagogue as Canada’s Prime Minister.

These crises and wars call for the broadest unity and solidarity between 
the native people, the labour, anti-war, women, 2SLGBTQ+, student and 
environmental movements, and all revolutionaries & progressives fighting 
for a better world.

Let our anti-capitalist May Day be anti-colonial and anti-imperialist.

VICTORY TO THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE!
VICTORY TO THE WORKING CLASS!

-- 
Love and Solidarity,
IPSMO - Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement - Ottawa
On stolen Algonquin land
—
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